In a bathroom built underground out in the desert,

A miner's retreat from degrees 44.

Keener than mustard on Kino, the miner

Sold opal to tourists and kept all the dough.

Then off to the café to purchase a ticket

And quick as a flash all the cash it would go.

The Business Activity Statement of miners

Is just like the tail of a gecko you see.

It wriggles for Peter Costello to chase it

Allowing the miner to run away free.

Sooner or later and probably sooner, the miner

Grows older, too old to work hard.

He cannot replace all the opal found early;

The figures were written down on the wrong card.

Off to the churches, the miner (who gambled and

Cheated the gov'ment till poverty reigned),

Went looking for Timothy, brother of Peter,

And Weet-bix and powdered milk rations he gained.

Gerhardt could gambol and get into trouble -

The Lord made a way to give Gerhardt his grace:

The tail of a gecko drops off in a crisis,

And later a new one grows back in its place.